Mastering Alcohol Marketing: Navigating Shifting Consumer Behaviors

The numbers don't lie. According to Marketing Dive, purchasing trends have shifted dramatically in the alcohol market over the last two years. Consumers are opting for at-home drinking, seeking out experimental flavors, and exploring sophisticated nonalcoholic options. These alcohol market trends suggest fewer opportunities for regular on-premise sales as people increasingly reserve drinking for special occasions at home.

For marketers, the key to survival is embracing change—catering to consumer curiosity, fostering at-home experiences, and encouraging experimentation. At the same time, marketers must also balance these efforts with core marketing functions: building brand loyalty, reaching the right-fit audiences, and forging meaningful connections. All this while maintaining rigorous compliance standards.

Digital advancements have paved the way for savvy marketers to do just that - turn changing alcohol market trends into opportunities. MediaJel's Marketing Platform is a powerhouse for compliant programmatic advertising in the alcohol market, with verified 21+ audiences and full revenue attribution visibility.

Below are the most effective strategies you can leverage to stay competitive with MediaJel’s robust marketing platform.

Understanding Alcohol Marketing

Big brand alcohol sales – and the marketing budgets that come with them – have long been a formidable adversary for smaller, limited edition, or fledgling brands. While alcohol incumbents continue to focus on mass media, the article “Toasting the Digital Era of Alcoholic Drinks” implies that much of the alcohol industry's latest growth is happening on a different plane. These days, brands of all sizes can compete efficiently and scale through diverse marketing channels – each with compelling strengths.

• Digital Channels: Social media, influencer marketing, and programmatic advertising such as display ads, connected TV (CTV), and digital out-of-home (DOOH)are highly effective at reaching very specific consumer groups.
• Traditional Channels: Print ads, TV commercials, billboards, and sponsorships still hold significant attention, especially when promoting brands in specific regions or local events.
• Experiential Channels: Tastings, branded events, and festivals allow brands to connect directly with consumers, providing memorable experiences that contribute to loyalty.

Advertising campaigns are like wine tasting—each sip tells a story. Channels can be physical, like stores, or digital, like websites and social media - each with its own messaging, regulations, and activation strategies.H2: Alcohol Brands vs Retailers – How Does Each Approach Alcohol Marketing?Alcohol marketing serves various business types, from craft breweries to global spirits giants, and plays a significant role in helping these brands grow their market share. Alcohol retailers and brands target diverse customer segments, but each must focus on unique characteristics and preferences that fit their business model.Alcohol Retailers generally cater to a broad demographic, focusing on age, income, and buying behavior. Key factors include:

• Demographics: Legal drinking age (21+) with diverse income levels; appeals to all genders.
• Psychographics: Prioritizes convenience and local preferences; may target health-conscious consumers with nonalcoholic options.
• Behavioral Segments: Analyzes purchase frequency and occasion-based buying patterns, tailoring inventory for holidays and events.
• Geographic Segments: Adapts offering based on urban vs. rural locations and regional trends.

On the other hand, Alcohol Brands develop marketing strategies aimed at distinct consumer groups. They focus on aligning their products with consumer values and lifestyles, often segmenting their audiences by age and behavior. Important considerations include:

• Target Demographics: Millennials and Gen Z favor unique flavors and craft products, while baby boomers prioritize quality and brand loyalty.
• Psychographics: Brands align products with values such as sustainability and create offerings for specific occasions.
• Behavioral Insights: Develop brand loyalty programs and targeted campaigns to engage consumers.
• Geographic Adaptation: Leverage regional flavors and styles to appeal to local tastes and preferences.

Staying Compliant: The Regulatory Side of Alcohol Digital Marketing

While alcohol ads may look glamorous, behind the scenes, brands are scrambling to stay compliant within a complex web of regulations that could make or break their reputation. To protect consumers and promote responsible drinking, alcohol advertising regulations dictate how alcohol can be promoted and who can be targeted with promotions. Consequently, alcohol brands must navigate a complex landscape of statutory and self-imposed rules.

Beyond ensuring compliance with laws, effective campaigns also follow self-imposed ethical guidelines to promote responsible consumption. For instance, Heineken's "When You Drive, Never Drink" campaign not only adhered to beer advertising guidelines but also reinforced the company's commitment to public safety and responsible drinking. Such campaigns show that compliance can go beyond following rules and contribute to a brand's positive image.

Programmatic Advertising in Alcohol Digital Marketing

Delivering brand-safe and age-appropriate digital alcohol advertising requires knowing who, when, where, and how to serve ads without creating compliance concerns. Forget guessing games. You should approach alcohol marketing scientifically–with data, testing, and process. Programmatic advertising is a digital marketing approach that uses automated technology to buy and sell ad space in real time across mainstream media platforms. It streamlines the process of purchasing ads by using software to match advertisers (alcohol brands) with the right audiences across various channels like banner ads, CTV, and even Digital Out of Home.

Programmatic advertising gives alcohol brands the advantage of precise audience targeting and efficient use of marketing budgets. 

The #1 step in a programmatic campaign is to define and develop your customized beer, wine, or liquor ad audiences. MediaJel works closely with you to understand customer characteristics and create target audiences rooted in big data analytics, tailored with proprietary datasets, and verified by human insights using our audience-building platform, Demograph. Then, we ensure your ads are seen across right-fit geographies, contexts, publishers, and media channels. 

Building Brand Loyalty through Alcohol Marketing

It's much easier to sell to someone who already knows and likes your brand. Businesses have a 60-70% chance of selling to a repeat customer but only a 5-20% chance of selling to someone new. Thanks to the precision of programmatic, building brand loyalty has never been more achievable. 

Programmatic Tactics for Creating Meaningful Connections

To foster lasting customer connections, alcohol brands can leverage programmatic - here are a few of our proven tactics:

• Personalized Messaging: Create ad copy that resonates with your target market preferences.
• Geotargeted Ads: Serve location-based ads to engage customers when they’re near your store or an event, increasing relevancy and conversion potential.
• Consistent Cross-Channel Presence: Maintain consistent messaging across all channels.
• Contextual Advertising: Serve ads in content that aligns with brand values.
• Customer Journey Optimization: Deliver ads at different stages of the customer journey.
• Retargeting Campaigns: Re-engage users who have previously interacted with your brand.
• Loyalty Incentives: Promote exclusive offers or loyalty programs to reward customers.
• Lookalike Audiences: Target audiences similar to your most loyal customers to prospect for new ones.
• Timely Engagement: Use real-time data to deliver ads when customers are receptive.
• Dynamic Creative Optimization (DCO): Automatically adjust ad content based on user data.
• User-Generated Content (UGC): Promote UGC to build authenticity and trust.

With the right programmatic approach, brands can succeed when building enduring relationships that stand the test of time.

Measuring Success in the Alcohol Market

Most marketers measure success by comparing their revenue to their advertising spend and evaluating how much it costs to attract new customers or boost sales—lower costs indicate better performance. They also focus on how many people take action, the level of brand recognition, interaction with content, and potential customers' interest in their products. However, manually managing data across multiple channels and monitoring metrics like brand recognition and customer engagement can become overwhelming and prone to errors. A Marketing Attribution Dashboard helps by consolidating all the data in one place, allowing for accurate tracking of KPIs and enabling informed decisions with less effort, providing a clear view of marketing performance.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

There are a million wine marketing KPIs you could track, but this is our list of the metrics that are the best indicators of a healthy marketing campaign:

• Brand Awareness: Measured through metrics like impressions, reach, and engagement.
• Conversion Rates: The number of purchases credited to a specific campaign.
• Return on Advertising Spend (ROAS): The impact of marketing investments– Revenue after ad costs.
• Engagement Rates: Engagement rates reflect how effectively a campaign resonates with its audience, whether through event participation, shares, likes, or comments.

Brands can use analytics tools like Google Analytics, social media insights, and programmatic ad platforms to monitor these KPIs and optimize campaigns.

Don't Waste a Drop... or a Dollar

Even the most creative and engaging liquor, wine, or beer advertising campaigns can't succeed without access to premium ad inventory and prominent placement on media channels that reach viable audiences and actual consumers. And, do it all with scale. 

One of the biggest advantages of programmatic advertising in alcohol marketing is its ability to minimize waste–both in coverage and spend–that alcohol brands experience with more traditional print advertising.

With precise targeting and automation capabilities, programmatic ensures that ads are served only to those most interested in your products. This reduces unnecessary impressions and maximizes the efficiency of marketing budgets, ultimately helping alcohol brands avoid wasted ad spend and guarantee their efforts are as impactful as possible.

Access 175,000 Top Publishers and MediaJel Alcohol Marketing Experts

MediaJel's exclusive private marketplace includes more than 175,000 mainstream websites and apps that reach consumers around the globe. These suppliers are friendly to alcohol advertisers and provide quality, brand-safe inventory. And since bots don't buy alcohol, we ensure your campaigns run on channels verified for high-quality traffic and real human engagement.

With MediaJel's advanced digital marketing platform, you can stay on top of alcohol market trends, attract buying customers, market across channels, scale to new locations, and enjoy a better ROI while doing it.

Schedule a call or personalized demo today.

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